What's your #1 book that you think every tabletop gamer should read? And why?

[innerdude]

Other than Lord of the Rings --- which frankly, IS the #1 book that should be read by all gamers; anyone claiming anything else is just rationalizing --- a few entries immediately come to mind.

The Bhagavad Gita
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Elric of Melnibone by Michael Moorcock
The Complete Conan Chronicles by Robert E. Howard.
Neuromancer by William Gibson.
Foundation by Isaac Asimov.
Pretty much anything written by Philip K. Dick.

 

[piffany]

Jack Vance's "The Dying Earth."

 

[Evenglare]

The Name of the Wind. Just... yes.

 

[Erekose]

I'd have to add Legend by David Gemmell but really any of his novels would qualify for a mention.

 

[Hrothgar Rannúlfr]

I'd recommend James Silke's Death Dealer series, based upon Frank Frazetta's paintings. Especially, book 1, Prisoner of the Horned Helmet.

 

[neonagash]

Since elric of melnibone and conan have already been mentioned I'll go with "a wheel of time". Fantastic series with very rich characters and interesting magic.

 

[Mercurius]

On one hand, it really depends upon genre. On the other, there really is no book that every tabletop gamer "must" read.

Also, these threads tend to devolve into people listing My Favorite Book That Everyone Else Must Read To Be Fully Human.

Sorry to be a grump, but I this thread would have been better titled "What Random Book Do You Recommend Other Tabletop Gamers Might Benefit From?" Or something less absolutist like that.

 

[Nellisir]

Hrm. I'll echo what others have said; I don't think there's one true source. For me, my "primary" books include:

• The Mabinogion, specifically Culhwch & Olwen;
• Chretein de Troyes' Arthurian stories;
• The Fionavar Tapestry/Trilogy, by Guy Gavriel Kay;
• The Winter of the World series, by Michael Scott Rohan (for best results, get the UK editions for their covers);
• The Mythago Wood series by Robert Holdstock;
• The Inheritance Trilogy by NK Jemisin;
• The Black Company series by Glen Cook;
• The Dictionary of Imaginary Places by Alberto Manguel & Gianni Guadalupi;
• Giants, Monsters, & Dragons; and Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, & Goblins; by Carol Rose
• Norse Mythology, by John Lindow;
• Grimm's Fairy Tales, by the Brothers Grimm.

To be honest, I don't think you're fully human until you've read all these.

 

[Bluenose]

For SF inspiration, Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories, particularly the David Falkayn ones (they're much more about a party than the Flandry ones). For hard SF GMs, World-Building by Stephen Gillett, which is an excellent book if you want worlds which actually match up to what is understood about physics/chemistry/geosciences/biosciences. And for any GM, Why Big Fierce Animals are Rare is a good read.

 

[Alzrius]

Jon Peterson's Playing at the World, which discusses the pre-history of how the tabletop role-playing game came to be.

That skirts the line of "can't be gaming related," but since it's not a rulebook, I figure it's just barely allowable.